USA Basketball will play all of its games at next year’s World Cup in Manila and will not need to travel during the tournament, assuming the US men qualify for the event.
FIBA, the sport’s governing body, made the announcement on Monday. The World Cup will be held in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan next summer and each of those host nations was able to pick a team they wanted to have for the group stage.
The Philippines chose the USA. Japan chose Slovenia, a team led by Luka Doncic. And Indonesia selected Canada, led by Toronto’s Nick Nurse and should feature a host of top NBA players such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray.
“I’d like to think it works in our favor,” USA Basketball men’s national team managing director Grant Hill said. “I think we need to be mindful and respectful that these players are on airplanes throughout the regular season and moving from city to city, bed to bed, hotel to hotel. It’s a routine. … I think once we get there and get established, we can plant some roots for a couple of weeks. I think it’s something that can work in our favor.”
Slovenia will play their group stage matches in Okinawa and Canada will play their opening matches in Jakarta. Okinawa is about 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) from Manila, while Jakarta is roughly 1,700 miles (2,735 kilometers) away.
The Okinawa and Jakarta groups will each send two teams to Manila for the final phase of the tournament. The other four nations that qualify for the finals will already be there; The United States, the Philippines and 14 other nations in the 32-team field will be in Manila for the group stage.
“Each host could select a preferred team based on business reasons, as their choice will have no impact on the integrity of the event or the draw process,” FIBA said on Monday.
Slovenia and Canada are among the 17 teams that have already qualified for the tournament. The rest of the field will be decided in February, with the US close to earning a spot, but not yet.
The Americans are 8-2 in their 12-game qualifying roster, in which they are using players from the G League and international clubs. The World Cup roster will have NBA players.
A win in Uruguay on February 23 or Brazil on February 26 would be enough to secure a spot for the US. Paris Olympics: Losing both games in February, having at least four results from other games that don’t go well and then lose a series of tiebreakers.
The draw for the World Cup is on April 29 in Manila. The tournament begins on August 25.
___
More AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
